Huawei Quick Charging Li-Ion Batteries Promise 10 Times Faster Charge

Watt Lab, part of Huawei’s Central Research Institute, has demonstrated new fast charging batteries for smartphone and tablets at the 56th Battery Symposium in Japan. The lab claims these new batteries can be charged 10 times faster than normal batteries, reaching about 50% capacity in a 5 minutes for a 3,000 mAh battery.

Two video demos were uploaded online both using a special charger for the battery only, and compared it to a mobile phone charge with a power adapter.

The first demo includes a depleted 600 mAh filled to 68% in just 2 minutes.

The second demo is quite similar but with a 3,000 mAh battery (620 Wh/L energy density) charged to 48% in 5 minutes.

That means you could get about half day worth of battery with a 5 minute charge. The feat can apparently be achieved by adding “heteroatoms“:

According to Huawei, the company bonded heteroatoms to the molecule of graphite in anode, which could be a catalyst for the capture and transmission of lithium through carbon bonds. Huawei stated that the heteroatoms increase the charging speed of batteries without decreasing energy density or battery life.

There are other existing quick charging technologies. For example, Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 can fill a battery to 65% in less than 30 minutes, so Huawei technology is several times faster, probably 3 to 5 times faster (Qualcomm did not divulge the battery capacity with their numbers).

It’s unclear if smartphones will need removable batteries for fast charging, or whether in the future, the new batteries can be charged inside the phone. Huawei did not give any clues as to when the battery might become available to consumers.